38:52Vanessa Lau · Demo
Film ONE MONTH of Content in ONE DAY
A tea-brand founder and her husband run three cameras through one long day, batching roughly a month of short-form video and handing it off fully organized to their editor.
July 29thThe argument in one line.
Your feed is a portfolio strangers judge in seconds, so a content strategy has to start from goals and a whole-person audience avatar, then borrow repeatable patterns from creators you admire instead of inventing every post from scratch.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A creator whose Instagram feed has drifted across too many topics and who suspects brands or customers can't tell who the account is for.
- A founder with a product business who wants a personal account that feeds the brand without turning into a second ad billboard.
- A creator pivoting out of an old niche who wants to keep the audience they have while widening into lifestyle content.
- Someone who burns out coming up with ideas from scratch and wants fixed weekly formats and scripting frameworks to lean on.
- A creator already using an AI workspace like Poppy or Claude who wants to see a full context board built step by step.
SKIP IF…
- You want short tactical growth hacks; this is a slow, hour-long strategy rebuild with a lot of screen-share of one person's board.
- You don't post on Instagram or short-form at all; the audit, feed and series advice is platform-specific.
- You dislike sponsored tool walkthroughs; a large share of the demo happens inside the sponsor's product.
The full version, fast.
A confusing Instagram feed quietly costs brand deals and customers, because strangers judge an account from its last dozen feed posts, not its stories. The fix is a stepwise rebuild: audit the feed with the bio covered, define what content must achieve in the next 12 months, build a whole-person audience avatar, and derive three or four broad pillars where your interests and the avatar's needs overlap. Then study five creators you admire for patterns (a central theme, B-roll over unrelated talk, fixed weekly formats, in-the-moment documentation, series with stakes) and turn them into an operating guideline, weekly formats and scripting frameworks that an AI tool can use to draft scripts in your voice.
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00:00 – 01:25
01 · Why your feed is costing you
Lost brand deals from a confusing feed; the feed as a three-second portfolio; three-part roadmap: strategy, system, live demo.
01:25 – 03:07
02 · Step 1: Audit your profile
A talent agency's harsh feedback, the stories blind spot, and the cover-your-bio test on the last 12 feed posts.
03:07 – 04:48
03 · Step 2: Set your content goals
Three 12-month goals: attract product customers top-of-funnel, attract lifestyle brands, attract creators as future affiliates.
04:48 – 08:40
04 · Step 3: Build the strategy board
Tour of the AI board (context, inspirations, weekly formats, scripting frameworks), before/after engagement numbers, sponsor read, and loading brand context and voice.
08:40 – 13:51
05 · Ideal audience avatar
Walkthrough of a whole-person avatar built partly from store data, the prompt structure, and why world-building beats a narrow niche.
13:51 – 19:16
06 · Content pillars
Prompting for the overlap between what she likes making and what the avatar needs, rejecting one pillar, and simplifying names to work, wellbeing, life, creating.
19:16 – 24:20
07 · Studying creators: central theme
Building an inspiration group of five creators; lesson one from Grace Beverley: a feed organized by time and life seasons, not topic.
24:20 – 29:31
08 · B-roll, repeatable formats, documenting live
Lessons from Elise (talk over unrelated B-roll), Michelle (fixed recurring formats) and Millie Goldsmith (film moments as they happen).
29:31 – 31:28
09 · Series with stakes and visual identity
From Julia Montgomery: tie a series to a clear goal and deadline, and keep fonts and editing consistent so posts are recognizable.
31:28 – 34:37
10 · Content operating guideline
Merging every board into one guideline: central theme, personal story, audience guardrails, and the reframe from founder audience to everyday audience.
34:37 – 39:47
11 · Repeatable weekly formats
A fixed seven-day format plan tied back to each creator lesson, series guidelines with hook types, 50-idea banks, and Pinterest carousel references.
39:47 – 46:23
12 · Scripting frameworks and brand voice
Analyzing 12 voiceover videos for a pattern, adapting it to her own series, tension-point topic lanes, and turning feedback into a brand voice guide.
46:23 – 51:54
13 · Execution: capture ideas, map the calendar
Notes-app folders per pillar, a saved-ideas vault, and a ClickUp calendar where each week gets one theme tied to a YouTube video.
51:54 – 58:02
14 · Live demo: scripting a real video
Voice-dumping a week into the chat, critiquing the first draft's hook, feeding in a reference video, and a note on choosing a writing-focused model.
58:02 – 1:00:11
15 · The final result
Playback of the finished burnout Founder Diaries episode and a closing argument that studying others is learning, not copying.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Cover your Instagram bio and look at your last 12 feed posts; if a stranger can't tell who you are from those alone, your feed is failing you.
- People who don't already follow you never see your stories, so lifestyle content that only lives in stories does nothing to attract lifestyle brands.
- A talent agency told one creator she wasn't getting lifestyle brand deals because her feed didn't already show lifestyle content.
- Brands sponsoring creators are buying the audience, so target a specific person rather than a narrow topic niche.
- Treat the ideal customer as a whole person: your product is a small part of their day, and content should cover the rest of it.
- Content pillars must sit where three things overlap: what you like making, what your avatar needs, and what your business goals require.
- Formats and post types are not pillars; a pillar has to be broad enough to generate endless ideas.
- Organizing a feed by time instead of topic, so posts follow the seasons of your life, makes unrelated posts read as one story.
- Fixed weekly formats like a Tuesday routine or a Sunday roundup remove the daily pressure of inventing ideas from scratch, while every video stays different.
- Talking about something unrelated while visibly making your product keeps the product on screen without turning the account into an ad.
- A series hook becomes compelling when it carries a clear goal and a deadline, like eight weeks out from a race and unable to do two wall balls.
- A post about running out of stock attracts founders; the same week framed as everything breaking while still showing up for friends attracts everyone else.
- A scripting framework is done when its full sample script sounds exactly like you; if it doesn't, keep iterating.
- Giving a weekly theme to every post, anchored by one story-driven vlog, turns stand-alone posts into a narrative across the week.
- AI scripting output can improve sharply just by switching to a model built for writing rather than a general-purpose one.
Build the system before you build the posts.
WHAT TO LEARN
A coherent feed comes from deciding goals, audience and patterns first, then letting fixed formats and frameworks do the daily work so each post adds to one story.
01Why your feed is costing you
- Strangers decide in about three seconds whether to follow, sponsor or buy, and they judge the feed, not your bio, stories or newsletter.
- Plan content as a three-part build: strategy first, then a reusable system, then execution, so posting stops depending on daily inspiration.
02Step 1: Audit your profile
- Cover your bio and review your last 12 feed posts to see what a stranger would conclude about who the account is for.
- Stories only reach existing followers, so any positioning you want brands or customers to see has to live in feed posts.
03Step 2: Set your content goals
- Write down what your content must achieve in the next 12 months before picking topics; every later decision gets checked against these goals.
- A personal account can serve a product business as top-of-funnel content that attracts the same person without becoming a second ad page.
04Step 3: Build the strategy board
- Give your AI tool or notes a single home for your bio, story, audience and voice so you never re-explain yourself when drafting.
- An automated read of your existing posts shows how you are actually perceived, which may differ sharply from how you intend to be seen.
05Ideal audience avatar
- Describe the ideal viewer as a whole person with a job, worries and habits, and use real customer data where you have it.
- Content that covers the rest of the avatar's life builds a world they live in, while product-only content stays transactional.
- Brands buy your audience, so targeting a person instead of a narrow niche widens the range of sponsors who fit.
06Content pillars
- Choose three or four pillars where your own interests overlap with the avatar's needs, broad enough to never run out of ideas.
- Treat AI pillar suggestions as a draft: cut pillars you can't sustain and rename vague ones in words you actually understand.
- Formats are not pillars; a routine video or carousel is a delivery method, not a topic territory.
07Studying creators: central theme
- Ask what specific pattern makes a creator you admire compelling, then write that pattern down as a rule next to their name.
- Organizing posts around the current season of your life lets business, health and personal posts read as one continuous story.
- A central theme, such as small changes that make a day 1% better, works as a filter that generates more ideas instead of fewer.
08B-roll, repeatable formats, documenting live
- Showing yourself making your product while talking about something else keeps it visible without hard selling.
- Fixed recurring formats, such as a weekly routine or Sunday roundup, keep each post fresh while removing blank-page decisions.
- Filming key moments as they happen gives voiceovers live reactions that recaps can't match.
09Series with stakes and visual identity
- A series earns investment when each episode restates a specific goal and a deadline, so viewers watch to see whether you make it.
- Inconsistent fonts and editing make each post look anonymous; cheap templates are a valid fix if design is a weak spot.
10Content operating guideline
- Combine every strategy document into one operating guideline that names the theme, the audience, and who you are not trying to attract.
- Write reframing guardrails: the same event told as a business lesson attracts founders, while told as a life moment attracts your real audience.
11Repeatable weekly formats
- Assign each weekday one fixed format traced to a specific lesson, and keep an idea bank per format for creatively drained days.
- Define the purpose of each series in writing so its hooks and structure don't drift as episodes pile up.
12Scripting frameworks and brand voice
- Study a dozen examples of one creator's voiceovers to extract the hidden structure, then rebuild it around your own story and audience.
- A scripting framework is finished when its sample script sounds exactly like you; keep giving feedback until it does.
- Turn your repeated corrections into a written voice guide so the tool stops producing punchlines and marketing phrasing you dislike.
13Execution: capture ideas, map the calendar
- Sort saved inspiration into folders that match your pillars as you scroll, so planning becomes filling buckets instead of brainstorming.
- Give each week a single theme tied to a long-form video and have every short post address it from a different angle.
14Live demo: scripting a real video
- Voice-dump the raw week into the tool and treat the first draft as a base to critique, especially the hook.
- Feeding in a reference video with the storytelling texture you want, plus switching to a writing-focused model, fixes drafts that feel too polished.
15The final result
- The strongest scripts admit a contradiction, such as caring about everything yet lacking capacity, and end on a small honest step.
- Studying other creators is learning their patterns, not copying them; the output should still be unmistakably your own story.
Terms worth knowing.
- Content pillars
- Three or four broad recurring topic buckets an account rotates through, chosen so that every post serves both the audience's interests and the creator's goals.
- Audience avatar
- A detailed written profile of one ideal viewer or customer, covering their day, work, worries, spending habits and what they want from you, used to guide content decisions.
- Top-of-funnel content
- Content aimed at strangers who don't know you yet, designed to attract the kind of person who might later buy, rather than selling directly.
- UGC creator
- A user-generated content creator: someone paid or rewarded by a brand to make product videos that look like organic posts from a real customer.
- MCP connector
- A Model Context Protocol link that lets an AI assistant such as Claude read from and act on other apps, like a store backend or a content board, inside a chat.
- Hyrox
- A fitness race format that combines running with functional workout stations such as wall balls and sled pushes, often trained for over several weeks.
- B-roll
- Supporting footage that plays over or between the main talking shot, often showing an activity while the voice track discusses something else.
Things they pointed at.
10:40toolClaude (with Shopify and Poppy MCP connectors)
21:10channelGrace Beverley
24:20channelElise
25:20channelMichelle
27:00channelMillie Goldsmith
28:20bookThe Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
29:31channelJulia Montgomery
31:00productEtsy carousel and reel templates
38:20toolPinterest (carousel references)
50:00toolClickUp
57:00toolClaude Sonnet (recommended for scripting)
Lines you could clip.
00:30
“Your Instagram feed acts as your portfolio. It's where potential sponsors, potential customers, potential followers are judging you within three seconds.”
01:50
“Anyone who's not already following you is not going to be watching your stories.”
11:45
“When brands are looking to partner with creators, they are basically buying your audience.”
21:40
“Grace's posts are organized by time, not by topic.”
33:25
“This week everything broke in my business and I still had to show up like everything was fine for my friends.”
58:50
“Caring about something doesn't automatically mean I have capacity for it and that's the part I haven't learned yet.”
Word for word.
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metaphoranalogystory
If you covered up your Instagram bio and looked at your last 12 feet posts, would you say that it's accurate to how you want to be represented? If the answer is no, this video is for you because a couple of weeks ago I found out that I lost a few brand deals because my feet was confusing. Brands couldn't figure out who my account was actually for.
The thing is, is that . It's where potential sponsors, potential customers, potential followers are judging you within three seconds. They do not have time to read your sub stack or go through your stories to learn more about you.
So if your account isn't already clear on who it's for and why people should follow, then you might be missing out on a lot of opportunities, which is why I decided to rebuild my entire content strategy and system. Because the truth is when I looked at my own profile, I completely agree, which is why in this video, I'm going to walk you through my process.
Part one, I'm going to share my content strategy, including how you can get crystal clear on your content goals. Part two, I'm going to walk you through step -by -step how I built out my content system, including how to know exactly who you're creating content for, find repeatable content formats that you can do without burning out, and the specific lessons I learned from studying other creators that completely revolutionized the way that I make content now.
Then in part three, I'll do a live demo. I'll use this exact system to script a real video from beginning to end. which helped me go from this result to this result immediately after following the system.
So if that's what you want, then keep on watching.
First step that I took was auditing my profile. So a couple months ago, I signed on with a talent agency and I told them my goal was to attract more lifestyle brands. And during our onboarding call, they gave me the harsh truth.
Hey Vanessa, the reason why you're not getting lifestyle brands is because you're not already posting lifestyle. And at first I was like, what do you mean? I always post lifestyle.
Look at my stories. But that's the thing. Anyone who's not already following you is not going to be watching your stories.
Even for me, I own a tea business. And if I want to work with a creator for my tea business, I'm going to immediately look. at their feed and see if they're already posting drink content.
And if they're not, then I'm going to leave. And so that's when it dawned on me on how important your feed posts actually is and how much opportunity you could be missing out on. If it's not optimized to what you want.
In my case, I also own a tea business. And when I looked at my feed, it wasn't obvious at all that I even owned a tea business. And so I was probably missing out on a lot of potential customers.
So this is the question that I want you to ask yourself, cover your feed posts and would a stranger know exactly who you are based on the feed alone. And from that picture that they've painted, is that actually what you want?
Because a lot of times there's a gap between what we say we want and what we're actually posting. For example, maybe this is the year that you wanted to step out of your niche, but when you audit your feed, you notice that you're still posting the same content that you did before and attracting the same audience that you didn't want in the first place.
Or maybe there's certain brands that you want to be sponsored by, but you're not already posting content that they would want to sponsor. And so again, cover your bio and look at your last 12 feed posts for that wake up call. Now, once you've audited your page and you're noticing some gaps, it's really quick to immediately want to create more content to fill it up.
But the problem is if you don't know why you're creating content in the first place, your feed is always going to be messy. So this is the second step I took, which is figuring out my content goals. And so I asked myself the question, why do I create content in the first place?
And what do I want my content to achieve in the next 12 months? And I landed on three goals. Number one, I want my content to attract super Boba customers at the same time.
I do not want my personal page to be because that's what our brand account is for. And so my personal page needs to be top of funnel content, attracting the same type of person that would eventually be interested in drinking Superboba.
Now our teas are all about helping people feel more productive, regulate their mood, focus and energy. And so naturally the content that I should be creating is more wellness, productivity, lifestyle. The second goal that I have is attracting the right brand partners.
In my case, I want to attract lifestyle brands. And so if that's the case, then my content should be sharing. routines or product recommendations, not just business and content creation tips.
But then that leads me to the third goal that I have, which is attracting creators. Now, a little context about me is I used to sell digital courses, teaching creators how to make content. And that's not my business anymore.
My business is super Boba. However, with super Boba, some of our best customers are creators who actually ended up posting about our product, wanting to be an affiliate, wanting to be a UGC creator. And so this is the type of persona that I would still love to continue to which is why when I'm creating my content pillars and content strategy, I'm going to keep that in mind.
Now I've shared my goals. It's now time for you to create your goals and your goals don't have to be like mine. For example, if you asked me a year ago, my goal was to just post consistently again or break out of the business guru space because that was all my content was about before.
And so take some time to think about your goals because this is going to be the underlying foundation for your content strategy.
Now at this point of the process, I have my gaps and I have my goals. Now what's missing is a content strategy that addresses both things. Now, when you're creating your content strategy, you can do this on your own pen and paper.
But for me, I actually like using AI because it helps me connect the dots faster. And in my case, my tool of choice for content is using poppy AI. Now in this video, I'm going to show you how I built my board step by step.
But for now, let me zoom out and show you what my board does. Now in my poppy board, I have a section where it has all it needs to know about me. This is my Instagram, my bio.
my audience avatar, and my content strategy, which in this video, I'll show you how I built out. Then I have my inspirations. These are five creators that I really admire, whether it's their tone of voice, how they storytell or the type of content that they're doing.
And underneath each, I actually have why I like these accounts. Next, I have my weekly content formats. And later in this video, I'm going to teach you how I came up with these and the strategy behind it.
But this is basically a reminder of what I post every day and the guidelines for each. And also some content idea starters for days where I feel creatively exhausted.
And then I've got my scripting and carousel frameworks. These are basically repeatable structures that I can apply to all the posts that I create, depending on what I'm posting. And the idea is when you have all these poppy boards set up, you can open up a chat and this chat can connect to different AI models.
And what you can do is link all of your strategies, all of the frameworks that you've built, any type of inspiration account. And from there, be able to easily script videos using AI as a brainstorm tool, because you've already built the system. And through building the system and using it as a tool to script my content, I actually was able to see an increase in engagement.
So this is a post before I built my poppy system with 588 likes. And this is my post after using my poppy system with 1300 likes under the same series. But also thanks to all the learnings that I'm about to teach you in this video, I took my feed from looking like this to looking like this, which is way more cohesive.
And by the way, if you don't like using AI, that's okay because it's the thought process and lessons learned that matters. So definitely keep on watching, even if you're not a fan of AI. Now, for those of you who do like using AI for content creation, I highly recommend Poppy AI and lucky for me, Poppy AI is actually the sponsor of this video.
I've been using them for years and they actually have a special offer right now where you can try Poppy for seven days for $1 only. And because I want you guys to succeed, I've attached my own Poppy template in the description box below. So you don't have to start from scratch.
But anyways, would that be, That being said, let me show you step by step how I built out this board.
So the first step that I did was I gave Poppy AI all the context it needs about my brand. After opening up a new board, I created a group and I labeled it Vanessa Lau. And inside this group, I dropped my bio, my personal story, my Instagram, basically everything it needs to know about me.
So I'm not re -explaining myself. And by the way, it's really easy to paste things in your Poppy board. For example, if you want to paste your Instagram, you just copy the link and then hit paste on your keyboard and it'll automatically show up.
Or you can manually link things using the Poppy menu. Now to take it a step further, and I think this is a really great way to audit what you currently have is Poppy actually has this brand voice tool where you can link your Instagram and your YouTube, and it's going to scrub through all of your content to understand your true brand voice.
Once it's done analyzing, it'll create a brand card like this with all the information that Poppy collected about you. This is a really good area to see if your content is actually doing its job. Because in my case, when I reviewed mine, it wasn't really accurate to the vision that I had.
had for my brand. This is when I knew that something needed to change because this is actually how people are perceiving me. And by the way, if there's just a few things that you want to tweak, you can also edit this in poppy as well.
Now, if it's accurate to how you want your brand to be represented, then great. Now you have this saved in poppy. So in the future, when you're scripting videos, it'll always remember your brand voice.
But anyways, going back to the sport, I think one of the most important documents to give is your ideal audience avatar. And if you don't have that, I'm going to drop my prompt in my template. That's linked below, but let us go through how I created mine.
Step -by -step. okay first of all let me just show you what mine looks like so you have an idea of the details that i put in so i talk about how i'm targeting women around her 30s who work from home she has a job side project or a small business and she has a desire to create content about her life but she's really tired and she's juggling multiple things she follows me because i'm a few years ahead and i'm honest in my journey i share the behind the scenes of what it's like being a woman juggling multiple things while providing tips on how to navigate life content creation and work while preventing burnout.
Then I have a section on where she is, where she might be living, her age range, her income, her ethnicity, her spending habits. And a lot of this data I actually got from my Shopify store. So it's really rooted in actual facts.
And later I'll show you how I did it. There's a section about her work and what it looks like when she works from home, because that's something that's very important to my niche, especially since I want to do more lifestyle content. I have things that's constantly on her mind, what she's tired of, what she actually wants to see.
from me and the feeling that she wants to get when she's learning from my content. Now, keep in mind, this is very unique to my business and my goals, which is why I have extra sections like what she's drinking, how she finds Superboba, what makes her hesitate of buying Superboba. In your case, if you sell a course or you have an offer, a service, or maybe you want to attract specific brands, this is something that you might want to think about when you're creating your avatar.
But anyways, now that I walk through my ideal audience avatar, the next step is I'm going to show you how to actually prompt this. so you can make your own.
You want to be able to communicate what your goals are. We already did this in the beginning of the video. Then you want to share more information about you or your business.
Now, if you have any existing data on your audience, this is the time to also fill that in. And by the way, if you are an advanced AI user, a cool thing with poppy is there is an MCP connector that you can connect to your cloud. So in my case, to get all of my customer information, I connected my cloud to my Shopify account and then also to poppy AI.
And it was able to come up with all the data for me. Now, once you fill out your goals for your content, more information about you and what you already know about your audience, what it's. going to do next is ask you up to eight questions about anything.
Poppy feels like you're missing. It's going to ask you questions one at a time. Once you answer those questions, it's then going to give you an ideal audience avatar with very similar sections to the one that I just shared with you that I use.
For example, a short version of the avatar, who they are, their work, what their normal day looks like, what's on their mind, what they're tired of, what they want from you, the feeling they want, what they use today in place of what you offer, how they go from a follower to your top goal. What makes them hesitate words to use words to avoid and who they are not.
Again, I'll paste this prompt inside the template that's linked in my description box below. Now, if you use my prompt and you answer everything, what it should deliver is an audience profile. That isn't a marketing persona.
So here's some of the rules that I set to make sure that this audience avatar is actually as accurate as possible. For example, making sure that you're seeing your ideal customer audience as a whole person. If you sell something, you have a business, that's just a small part of their life.
For example, super Boba them drink. T's is not their whole life. It's just a small part of it.
So I need to tap in to what their day to day actually looks like, because that's going to help me with my content creation to attract the type of person that would be interested in Superboba eventually as a small part of their day. This is actually how you can world build and rather than creating a transactional relationship.
A good example is let's say if I only did tea recipes over on my page, the truth is the person that I want to attract is not someone who cares about making recipes 24 seven of their day. They have other things that keep them up at night.
They have other priorities, other values. So my content's goal is to hit as many of those things in their life. So eventually they'll trace back to Superboba and they also stay following my page because my page is now a universe that they see themselves in.
Now I know I've been using a lot of Superboba examples. So let's say you're someone who doesn't have a Superboba, but you're not selling a product and you just want to build your personal brand. Okay.
You just want to be an influencer, all those different things, which is fine. The reason why you still want to world build is because number one, it's going to potentially expand the amount of brands that want to work with you. If you are too niche, you're only going to attract a type of brand and a lot of brands, they don't want you to be promoting their competitors.
And so that's why there's a reason why you want to niche up a little bit while still keeping the avatar in mind. When brands are looking to partner with creators, they are basically buying your audience. They want whoever you are attracting.
And so instead of thinking about me, Think about the person and get as specific as possible in the person that you were trying to target and just create content that that person would like. This is also going to help you as a creator, as someone who evolves.
I'll use a personal example. I used to only post content about how to grow on Instagram. I eventually got sick talking all the time about how to grow on Instagram.
And so when I pivoted, I lost so many followers. I lost so much engagement because of it. And now I'm rebuilding it the right way of diversifying and thinking about the person.
not the niche. Now that Poppy has a very clear customer avatar, the next step is for me to reverse engineer my content pillars. Now for me, what I decided was my content pillars definitely needed to be something that I was interested in creating, but would also attract my ideal customer.
Once I've connected my poppy chat to my resources, I'm actually going to use this prompt to figure out my content pillars. So let me zoom in. It says, use my audience avatar attached, help me choose three to four pillars.
And your task is to really compare the two lists topics I like talking about. And poppy knows this because I attached my Instagram account. So if your Instagram account is accurate to the content that you typically like making, this will be nice.
But if you don't have that, then I would suggest creating another resource for poppy, which includes your own personal preferences on. what type of content you like or just writing it down here if you'd like but anyways compare the two lists what i like to talk about and what my avatar wants from me and kind of find where they overlap group the overlap into three or four broad pillars and for each pillar give me a short name what it covers the need it meets for my avatar the goal it serves for my business for my own personal goals and how much of a percentage i should do of each pillar then also give me five post titles so i have a clear idea on what this pillar actually includes give me a weekly plan that shows me which pillar goes on which day and any topics you might have left out and explain to me why.
Now there are certain rules, for example, making sure the pillars are broad enough. If it's too specific, then I won't be able to come up with endless content ideas. Use only topics that you know, I like.
And again, if poppy or whatever AI tool you're using, doesn't know that you should give it to them. Every pillar must meet the real need of my avatar. Every goal that I listed.
Remember earlier in this video, we talked about knowing why you create content in the first place. All the pillars must serve that. goal formats and post types are not pillars.
Now I have a personal preference where I don't want business to be a single pillar. And the reason why is because if I'm talking about how to start an e -commerce business, I'm only going to attract e -commerce owners who likely want to build their own super Boba. And that's not my ideal avatar.
That's not my customer. So I put a rule here of that's what I don't want. And I suggest you do the same and then give me some examples using my voice.
So let's shoot this in. Okay. So this is what Poppy came up with and you can see that it understands my avatar.
because I did spend some time creating that ideal audience avatar. It also has a good understanding of what I like posting about, and this is likely because it's being pulled from my Instagram profile. I would say this is pretty accurate.
And then it's recommending me some content pillars and how much it should take up on my profile, founder diary, creator life, better day, faith and becoming. And now it's explaining each pillar in depth. So for example, founder diaries is really me showing behind the scenes of rebuilding my life after a major pivot.
I like how it specifies that this is not about how to start an e -commerce business. Cause that's what I don't want. It's actually about showing women what it looks like to build something while managing so many things behind the scenes.
It's suggesting that 35 % of my content should be under this pillar. And then five examples. Then it repeats the same thing for the following pillars.
So one of them is creator life, which has some video ideas that I should do. And the reason why this fits my avatar is remember, I do want to attract a sub segment of creators because down the line, I would love to build an affiliate UGC creator program for super Boba. Again, more post titles.
Third pillar is better day, which covers the small routines, products, breaks, habits, and lifestyle choices that make my day feel better with. out a whole overhaul. So this can include Superboba in my actual day, work from home routines, small purchases that are worth it, beauty routines, desk setup.
So these are all things that I know my audience would really like. And I also really like making as well. And then the fourth pillar is faith and becoming.
And I think this is the one that I disagree with. Even though there are some posts where I do like talking about my faith, the reason why I don't see this as a viable content pillar is I just don't have enough content ideas to be consistent with this. And so this is something I would personally go back and forth on and change.
Anyways, that's an idea of the content pillars. It's now giving me the weekly plan each day, the pillar, the purpose. And I also love that if I don't want to do seven times a week, this is what four times a week would look like.
And this is really great where it says Monday is what I'm building. Wednesday is how I'm creating. Friday is what made my day better.
And Sunday is what I'm learning. So I absolutely love that. Next it's giving me things that I should leave out or de -prioritize.
So anything related to e -comm tactics, old school, Instagram growth advice, basically all the things that I do not want to do. And to remind you, this prompt is going to be in my poppy template, so you can use it for yourself, but I just want to give you an example of the results that it can give you.
Now for me, even though I really like these content pillars and the reasonings behind them, except for this last one, I did find that these pillar names are too fluffy, like better day. I don't really like that because I don't really know what that means. And so I actually simplified it a little bit more.
And so taking all of these ideas, I made it. into words that I understand, which is work, wellbeing, life. and creating.
Now, because these are so broad, I think it's really important for you to have a personal understanding of what each pillar actually means and why it contributes to your end goal. But beyond that, copying it and pasting it into its separate text box and putting it in your board within poppy so that poppy knows everything about you.
And so ultimately your content pillars should achieve a few things. Number one, it should be what your ideal customer is actually interested in. It needs to be what you are actually interested in.
And it also needs to connect to your goals. In my case, it's attracting super Boba. And because these content pillars are more lifestyle focused and a little bit more broad, I'm able to probably attract more lifestyle sponsors within these categories.
Now at this point, we've gotten clear on some of your gaps, your goals, your ideal audience, and also your content pillars. But the next step that I took is probably my most favorite step. And that is actually studying my favorite creators, which is why I actually really like using Poppy for this.
And so what I did was I created a separate group and I wrote inspiration accounts. And then I copied the links of all the profiles of creators that I really admire, whether it's their storytelling, their editing style, or maybe the type of content that they're doing. I pasted in my Poppy board.
And what poppy will do is already have their latest posts ready and their outliers. And you're able to quick add their profile into your poppy board. So I did that for five of my favorite creators.
And then I linked it to my poppy chat along with the context about my account and my goals. And then in the chat, I asked poppy, I've attached these profiles. Tell me what you see and the best practices.
And this is where poppy analyzed all of these accounts and told me what the best practices were. And a lot of them were things that I didn't even realize. All I knew was that I was drawn to their content, but I wasn't sure why.
And I would say that this was probably the most valuable thing for me. And it's actually what reshaped my entire content strategy, because what this was able to do was help me be a better creator by studying those that I feel drawn to. And this isn't to say that you are copying these creators.
It's that you are finding patterns and that you are learning from them so that you can apply those best practices to your niche, which I'll show you how to do later. But for now, what I did was for each creator, as I was looking through the best practices, I took my favorite takeaway and then I added it as a note under each account.
This is a visual reminder for me on why these are my inspiration accounts in the first place. Now, because I know not all of you guys watching this video are going to be using AI. I actually want to share the lessons that I learned through studying these creators so that you can apply it to your content as well, because these were the learnings that completely revolutionized how I saw my own content.
So let me break it down step by step and give these creators their flowers. The first creator I learned from is Grace Beverly. And what I learned from using Poppy to study Grace Beverly's content is that there is a central theme throughout her entire account.
What I felt was missing in my own account is one day I'm posting a lash tutorial. The next day I'm posting my high rocks challenge. Then the next day I'm posting a meme with my husband.
And then the next day I'm posting a camera tutorial. These are all separate posts that don't actually tell a greater story. But when I go on Grace's feed, it feels like whatever posts I click on, they all kind of somehow mesh together.
And it gives me a very good idea of who her account is for and what she's all about, which I felt was missing with my own page. And so I actually brought this observation up to Poppy to ask, how is Grace Beverly doing this? And this is what I learned.
Grace's posts are organized by time, not by topic. If you actually look at her feed in order, it's a continuous story that she's telling. It's not one day she's posting about one thing and the next day it's whiplash and she's posting the other like I am.
So for example, instead of just sticking to a niche, no matter what, when she got pregnant, she revolved her content around her pregnancy. This included day in the life vlogs. This included business decisions that she was making while being pregnant.
And so you can see that if you were following her during that time period, you were following along her pregnancy and how it was affecting all aspects of her life. When she was postpartum and found herself in a different season of life, she talked about that. But then later she also posted all of her recommendations.
of things that she's been buying or things that she's been using that has helped her during this season. So in some sense, each post kind of relates to another. And as a follower, you're really following her through the seasons of her life.
And all of her posts just make sense and fit together. There is a central storyline and theme. And so that's why I feel grace Beverly is a really good example of someone where I see is not just posting business content and not just posting lifestyle content.
And she's so good at weaving the two together. And so my takeaway from studying grace is that I need a central theme that all of my posts feed into. And so what I did was I started thinking about why I created super Boba in the first place.
And so when I thought about this, I made the connection that we created super Boba because we didn't want people to have to choose and give up their love for Boba. Instead, we created a better version of it so that they didn't have to make that swap and they could just make their day slightly better just by having their favorite treat that could actually be good for them.
And so the central theme that I thought of for my page was maybe my page is a place for these women that I want to attract to learn how they can make their life better without completely burning everything down like I did many years ago. What are some easy swaps they can do? What are the routines they can implement?
What are the content creator tools that I'm using that can make their workflow 1 % better. What are the lessons that I've learned in my life that have made my friendships 1 % better.
And so even though it's not directly promoting Superbowl, but it all follows the same theme and it's all going to attract the same type of person. But what's really cool is now that I have this filter and this central theme of making people's lives 1 % better, it allows me to come up with even more content ideas and see the through line of it all.
The second lesson I learned is from Elise and through studying Elise's content, I noticed that she's really good with showing b -roll that doesn't actually relate to what she's saying in the video listening is usually where i can get the most out of a room and there's actually research on this people who ask more questions are usually better like pretty simple on day one but starting it with someone else is a long -term commitment and a lot of what protects that commitment is unglamorous and one of the problems that i felt was going on with my account is super boba isn't visible enough it's not clear that i own a tea business but at the same time i don't want my page to be a mini super boba page because that's the point of having this Superbowl page.
And so through release, I realized that I need to be creating more videos of me making a Superbowl Bob. But what I'm going to be talking about while I'm making the drink is something related to life, which is one of my content pillars. Maybe it's something I learned wisdom that I can share some mistakes that I've made anything that I can do to make the person who's watching my videos get 1 % better or have a perspective change.
The third creator that I learned from is Michelle. Now this was probably one of my favorite learnings that Poppy helped me discover. because I knew that I really liked Michelle's content.
I just couldn't figure out why. And so when I asked Poppy, what were the best practices for Michelle's page? It talked about how Michelle is really good with having repeatable formats.
If you actually look at our content, she'll have monthly tech finds. This week's Amazon tech find is this vegan leather phone case. This week's office setup.
Or this morning's routine.
These are all formats that she's just repeating every week or every month. But the cool thing is, is that every video is still different. And I think this is really genius because for me, I always get overwhelmed and thinking that I have to come up with ideas from scratch.
And so because I learned from Michelle, I decided that every week I'm going to have a few formats that are going to be fixed. That way I don't always have to think of ideas from scratch. And so every Tuesday I'm going to share a routine.
Maybe it's my morning routine, my night routine, or come with me to edit at the coffee shop or what I do on my walk with. nugget or a desk cleanup things that don't require me to talk on camera. And that I would do anyways, in my life, the next repeatable format I thought of was that every Wednesday I would just yap on camera while making a super Boba.
This is what I learned from studying Elise's content. And I think that if I do it every week, then super Boba visually is going to be a lot more prominent on my page. Even if I'm not hard selling super Boba in the actual content.
And then my last repeatable format that I want to do is a carousel roundup every Sunday. So for example, Things that inspired me this week or things that I wore this week or things that I bought this week.
Again, each post is still going to be different, but the format is repeatable. Now, the next content lesson I learned from is from Millie Goldsmith, the co -founder of Salt. And what I think she does really well is her voiceovers, but also how she's documenting her life.
206 unread WhatsApps. That's... 42 people to get back to.
And probably half of those people are my family and friends, who at this point probably just think I don't care. And so when I asked Poppy what makes her videos engaging or what are the best practices, it told me that what Millie does is she films things in the moment.
In my case, for a lot of my voiceovers, I'm doing a voiceover on things that already happened, and I don't have a lot of live clips of how I'm actually reacting. to things as they happen to me. Like Millie does.
She's really good at that. So you actually feel like you're in the moment with her. So my takeaway there is to be more mindful of filming those big moments.
Oh my gosh. I just did my first 10 K on a bad day on my period overwhelmed with everything. But beyond that, what I took away from studying Millie's content is to actually document my life more.
And that's why I created the founder diaries where every single Monday, I'm going to share a story of something that happened in my life. I'm burnt out. and I hate admitting that.
My eczema's flaring up, I'm getting irritated faster, and it's embarrassing to share because I've been here before. The first time I burnt out, I poured everything into business and neglected everything else. So this time, I tried to build a life where work wasn't the only thing that mattered.
But somehow, I still end up with the same burnout, and it makes me wonder if I've even learned anything. This kinda also links back to my learnings from studying Grace Beverly's content, because what I want my weekly founder diary post to do is to act as an a - anchor for the rest of my posts earlier.
I talked about the central theme for my account is making people feel like they're making daily upgrades that are little things they can do to make their day 1 % better. But the vision that I have for my founder diaries is that that singular vlog is actually going to set the foundation for the rest of the week. People get a glimpse of my life, the things that I'm struggling with, the real problems that I'm facing.
And then throughout the week, they're going to get posts on how I'm solving those problems from that vlog, whether it's recommendations. I read it every. I feel really stretched thin it's called the ruthless elimination of hurry by Mark former highly recommended whether it's a new routine.
I've implemented Whether it is a learning that I got And so my hope is by doing this, I'm actually world building on my page, which I think Millie Goldsmith does really well. And then finally, the fifth creator I learned from is Julia Montgomery.
When I watch her content, I love how she does her series. Day 15 of the winter, I stopped being a little bitch. I'm getting sick of this.
Now what I'm encountering is the middle problem. Your goal isn't new and shiny and exciting anymore. What would happen if you were completely?
delusional for 100 days well it's day six and i already got the previews from the shoot and they are insane hi i'm jules if i keep forcing myself to try and be type a i'm gonna lose my mind because unfortunately i just don't care the voiceovers are excellent and you really feel invested in her journey of hitting whatever goal that she has And so that made me realize for one of my series, which is my High Rocks series is that I could do a better job of increasing the stakes.
For example, this is the hook for the first episode I did. Here's episode one of getting jacked for High Rocks. Now, even though the goal is to get jacked, people aren't really invested in that.
What does that actually mean? And so what I learned from Julia is to actually tie a very clear goal and a deadline to it. And so as an example, what I would say instead is we're eight weeks till High Rocks and I can barely do two wall balls.
This is episode. six of training for high rocks with a goal of one hour, 20 as a beginner runner today, I dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. And so already by making this change, people may feel more invested in my journey and seeing if I can accomplish the goal or not within the deadline that I have.
Now another thing that Poppy made me aware from studying Julia is her feed is very cohesive. And what Poppy brought up to me is all of my posts individually just stand alone. So if you actually click on any of my posts, you can't really tell that it's a Vanessa Lau post because I use different fonts every time.
I have different editing styles every time. Whereas with Julia, it's very consistent. Now for me, I am not the greatest designer.
My weakest spot has always been thumbnails, cover art, cover reels, all those different things. So what I actually did is I went on Etsy and I looked looked for carousel templates, real templates.
I bought a couple. So wish me luck guys, maybe it'll help. But that is an idea for you if you are someone who is also not the best at design.
But anyways, at this point I've done a lot and it almost feels like it's scattered everywhere. I basically told Poppy, I connected every board to Poppy and I said, can you please come up with a content guideline that I can follow? And then it spat out a content operating guideline.
Now, of course you may want to go back and forth with Poppy and tweak it if you would like. But once I was happy with mine, that's when I put it into my bigger board, which tells Poppy or any other AI tool what it needs to know about my content strategy. So just to give you guys an example, this is what my content operating guideline looks like after connecting all the best practices, my audience avatar, my bio, everything that Poppy needs to know that we've worked on on this video.
The first one is really my theme, which I've talked about is helping women make their day better, even if it's a 1 % change. My personal story around this is I've been a content creator for almost 10 years. I hit a million YouTube subscribers.
I burnt out in 2022. During that time, I also drank boba twice a day, frappuccino. That's how it led to building Superboba with Leon.
And now my goal with my content is helping people make their day better, whether it's through content, whether it's through their health, life advice, anything that relates back to my ideal audience. A reminder that my content proves that people aren't one dimensional. The women I make content for are juggling a job, side project partner, health friendships.
I show range through whatever happens in my business and also how those things translate to real life. It's very important that I'm not attracting other founders. That is not my IC.
and so here are some guardrails for that where if something happens in my life that I'm documenting about let's say we're out of stock on Superboba if I wanted to target business owners how I would say it is ecom is very cash intensive this is our inventory this is what I learned but that's actually for the wrong audience instead my audience I need to frame it differently so if we are out of stock on Superboba instead what I would talk about is this week everything broke in my business and I still had to show up like everything was fine for my friends That is way more relatable to my ideal audience.
And because I have a tendency to create content for business owners, there's a lot of chances that I'm going to talk about these things. And so by having this guideline, having this guardrail, Poppy's going to stop me and help me reframe my story into something that's going to fit the person that I'm trying to attract better.
So that's an example of what I have in my guideline. Yours is going to be different because you're going to have different goals. Then I've got my weekly system, which we've talked about through studying other.
creators and me linking it back to my content pillars these are the series that i have i have two going on the founder series and my high rock series the formats and sounds how i deliver it try to perform as much of it live rather than recapping it we learned this through studying millie goldsmith we also learned through studying julia montgomery that i need to be identifiable even when the sound is off on my video so having visual cohesion and if you actually look at my instagram right now i'm working on it and i think i've gotten a lot better ever since using the system and learning from other creators.
But this is an idea of what a content operating guideline looks like. And yours is going to look different depending on what you feed Poppy and the conversations you have with it. Now at this point, I obviously have learned a lot from these incredible creators.
And so the next step that I decided to do was figure out my content formats. And how I did this was I linked all the learnings from these creators. And then also my Vanessa Lau group that houses all of my goals, client avatar, everything Poppy needs to know about me.
And that's where we came up with these formats. So for example, every Monday I want to do a founder diaries. This was inspired by Millie.
Every Tuesday, it's a repeatable content format where I do a routine, whether it's my editing routine, my fitness routine, waking up routine, hair routine, any type of routine. This was inspired by Michelle.
Wednesday is my yapping video while I'm making a super boba. This was inspired by Elise. Thursday is what I'm doing already, which is sharing my content tips, whether it's camera gear, content advice, systems like I'm sharing right now.
Friday is my existing high rock series. Saturday, I kind of want to do something fun and trendy to show my sense of humor. And then Sunday is my weekly carousel roundup where I want to share things that inspired me that week, product recommendations I have.
Basically, anything that's swipable. Now what you'll notice is I also have guidelines and a content bank for each type of format.
For example, for both of my series, I went back and forth to understand what is the purpose of each series so I don't lose sight of why I'm doing it in the first place. now for the guidelines here poppy was down for maintenance when i was doing it so luckily i had the poppy mcp connected to my cloud account but basically this is where we kind of went back and forth on creating guidelines for this series and so i basically told poppy that i love that i have recurring formats that i can repeat every week but i have two series at the moment one is founder diaries and the other one is high rock series and so this is where we also kind of came up with the other content format which i talked about before and then here is where i asked to work on the guidelines for founder series first and so this is kind of where we just went back and forth on like the structure of the series and how to make it recognizable and because claude has access to my entire poppy board i asked it to refer to some of my inspiration accounts and so this is why i love using poppy with claude because i can put so much information in poppy visually but for days where i want to use claude instead because claude might have more context
my business outside of just content it's really helpful but anyways i just want to show you the behind the scenes of what it was like for me to go back and forth to create my content guidelines but essentially for this content guideline we came up with a purpose and how we were able to do that was because i needed us to zoom out and get the bigger point of the series and this is where i really got massive clarity on why i'm creating this series in the first place you can see that i was very happy with this result and basically why this series is relevant to whoever i'm trying to attract and in my case it's that i want to show that the reality for women is that they need to juggle everything and it bothers me that on social media and in society we kind of get put into a box where we have to choose our titles you can't be a mom and do this and do that and do that and so i'm hoping that my founder diaries is going to show a more multi -dimensional view of my life but essentially this is where we go back and forth back and forth and then finally once i got a direction i was happy with i just asked it to create a series guide and
So that's how it became this. so just as a sample this is my founder diary series guidelines where it has the purpose of what the series is about the episode structure hook options to use whether it's asking a question sharing a feeling a voice note style which is basically like me yapping to a friend contrast hook for example on paper i had a great week in reality i barely held it together confession hooks and statement hooks it's also got best practices to keep in mind of when i'm creating the series that were in my content guidelines.
And again, your guidelines for your series, if you choose to do a series is going to be different than mine because everyone is unique. It really depends on the conversations that you're having with Poppy or any other AI tool, but I wanted to at least show you mine. So you have a reference on what my series guidelines look like.
This is basically just a reminder for myself and whatever AI tool I plug into to know the context and best practices of my series, basically. But later in this video, when we talk about script, We're going to flush this out even more.
And by the way, the reason why I do all of this is because I know when I start scripting my content, I'm going to be linking these boards into poppy and meshing them with my current ideas. And I want to make sure that poppy understands the guard rails of what the series should and shouldn't look like. Now for my other content formats that aren't a series and aren't a voiceover that I need to script, I basically just asked Poppy to come up with 50 ideas because there are days where I feel creatively exhausted and I want to be able to see some ideas right away that I can pull from if I need.
It also gives Poppy an idea in the future when I'm coming up with new content on what types of content generally fit that format. I forgot to mention that I also have carousel resources and what I do is actually go on Pinterest to find ideas to fuel my Sunday carousel post. I don't really like looking on Instagram because Instagram, I just compare myself and it's just a gong show.
But when I look at Pinterest, I'm able to see so many different ideas without feeling stressed. It's actually enjoyable for me. And so I downloaded all the images and then I pasted them into Poppy so that I have a visual reminder of different formats that I can recycle for my Sunday carousel post.
Now a theme of this video is really showing you how important it is to create repeatable things, things that you can do over and over again so that you don't burn out as a creator. And so this leads me to the next step that I took, which was creating scripting frameworks. because the thing is creating guidelines like this tells you what to create, but it doesn't tell you how to create them.
And that's what scripting frameworks is going to do for you. And so what I did is knowing that I have two series that are ongoing for my page, I created a scripting framework for each of them. So the first one is my founder diaries.
And I heavily based this off of the best practices that I learned from Millie Goldsmith. And by the way, the goal is never to copy any of the creators that you admire. It's to study them and figure out what's working for them so that you can apply the same patterns to your content and to your story.
And so what I did was I created a separate group and I called it Millie Goldsmith voiceovers. And then I went on her page and I selected the ones that I really liked and I pasted them into my poppy board one by one. Then I connected it to my poppy chat and I asked it to observe her content and tell me what patterns and what best practices it sees.
Once I understood objectively what makes Millie's voiceovers so engaging and so strong, I then attached my own founder diaries guideline to poppy. and asked it to apply the best practices that we learned from Millie to my own series. And this is where you're going to end up with something that's unique to you.
Okay, just to give you context. So once I attached 12 of Millie's videos, I asked, I've attached a few videos. Tell me what you see.
It then showed me all 12 videos and what was happening. Then I took it a step further and say, what are the patterns for these videos that she does? Here's the thing that I really like.
I like how each of her videos are different. It's capturing moments of her life, yet it's still engaging and tells a clear story. Can you also...
a scripting framework so i could study it poppy was able to identify the core pattern of her hooks across all 12 videos these are things that i probably wouldn't have even realized because there's just so many videos how she actually sets it up with a real life incident that seems small then she complicates the obvious interpretation she uses contradiction constantly she makes herself both the narrator and the subject and then finally she has an insight at the end and so this is the scripting framework of how she does it and so i was able to really study the pattern because even though each video really does feel different when i look at her page she does actually follow a framework and pattern whether she realizes it or not now obviously i don't want to be millie goldsmith i want to be vanessa lau and so what i did was i attached all of my own information everything that we worked on with poppy my ideal audience all the frameworks that i created for my series my posting formats just everything the content guidelines then i asked it to apply it to my founder diary
theories specifically. This is where we came up with a framework that was more unique to me with the core formula of having a real founder moment, emotional contradiction, life business pattern, small reframe and unresolved ending, or put simply what happened this week, why it hit me, what it made me realize and what I'm trying now.
A very simple framework that I can follow when we're doing scripts. Now it's got tons of other information, not everything I find helpful for me personally, but then it's also got the hooks and how it could adapt to my situation. The facts, the feelings, the contradictions, the patterns, basically the entire guideline.
Now, obviously we went back and forth a lot. This is like very irrelevant to you guys because you guys are doing something completely different than me. But I just want to show you that it does take back and forth to get something that you truly feel excited about.
And so what mine actually looks like now is something like this, where it's got the core idea, the exact same structure, but now it's got some hooks that I feel actually fit my brand. voice a lot better and how you'll know you nailed the scripting framework is you want to ask it to give you a full sample script and when it gives it to you you have to ask yourself does this actually sound like me in my case this sounds pretty much exactly like me which is how i knew i was finally satisfied with what we created beyond that i specifically requested to have topics for the founder series in case i get creatively stuck what was also really cool is through studying millie goldsmith you could tell that there's always tension between two things in her life and what What Poppy gave me were more tension points that I could talk about if I run out of ideas.
For example, Superboba and work. Growth versus pressure. Freedom versus responsibility.
Or even Leon and marriage. Having a husband and having a co -founder at the same time. How do I juggle that?
Or even faith. Being able to trust God, but also want to be in control. Hyrox and health.
Work from home. Family and friendships. It goes on and on and on.
But I really just want to show you an example of what mine looks like. I also hope that by showing you these examples, you can see how... even though we're studying creators, we're learning from them.
We're still creating things that are very unique to our story, our journey, our audience, our context, our niche. And so I can't emphasize enough in this video that it is not about copying other people. It is from learning from other people.
Back then you would spend hours. doom scrolling and studying and learning. And now with AI, you're able to actually do that, not just faster, but also better because now you can see how you can adapt best practices to your own preferences and come up with something that is uniquely yours.
Yours is going to look different at the end of the day, but it does take time to script and to prompt. But I assure you that if you feed Poppy all this information, it's going to be an absolute beast. And later in part three of this video, you'll see why when I show you a real example, of how I scripted my founder series using the script that I just made with Poppy.
And by the way, once you're done analyzing your favorite creators, if you don't want it cluttering your board, you can actually minimize the group and it turns it into a folder that you can always expand whenever you want to go back to it. Now, of course, when you work with AI, you may not agree with everything. And in my case, there was a few times where I felt like what Poppy was giving me was a little bit gimmicky and it wasn't actually my tone of voice.
And so as I'm giving feedback back and forth, once I was satisfied with the result, I actually asked Poppy, Hey, remember all the feedback that I gave you? We learned that I don't like it. when things sound like a punchline, when things sound kind of marketing gimmicky.
And so can you actually describe what my preference is? Then Poppy explained my preferences. And then I asked it to turn it into a brand voice guideline that I can then put it in my scripting resources so that it understands the language that I want when it's scripting my videos.
Now, because this is a brand voice document, what I also did was I made sure to add it in my Poppy brand voice card. That way, when I'm chatting with Poppy, I don't always have to link this doc. in order for it to understand my brand voice.
But anyways, let's move on to the third part of this video, which is execution.
All right guys, welcome to execution day. We now have the guidelines and the systems within poppy and now it's to test if it works. But the first thing I do is make sure I have all my content ideas captured.
Now, what I've done is I've organized my notes app on my phone to align with my content pillars. So as I'm doom scrolling throughout the day, I make sure I save things within those folders. Now, sometimes if I'm really on the go or I've gotten lazy, the bare minimum is I'll just bookmark it.
So I'm going to spend some time to go through all of my bookmarks across TikTok, Instagram, my burner accounts, and make sure that I've saved them to the right folders. So let's quickly do that together.
point, I have a handful of links saved within each folder of my notes app that's aligned with all of my content pillars. Now, this is an optional step, but I think it's really cool if you're someone that's already using Poppy. It's using their vault feature.
So over here, you're actually able to save your content ideas within a vault so that in the future, you don't have to always copy and paste it into the board. For example, right here in my vault, I have some of my most favorite posts that I've done just as reference if I ever need. But beyond that, you can also create a new vault.
And I'm just going to call this vault October ideas from here. I can go into my folders. I'll just copy what I've written and then paste it and add it into my vault.
What I can also do is if I have certain Instagram links or Tik TOK links, YouTube links, I can also paste that into the vault as well. And what it's going to look like is something like this. I really like using the bold feature because it's very visual.
And in one glance, I can already see what the idea is rather than clicking into every single link. I can also expand it if I want to watch the content piece. Now, if you want to take a content idea out of the vault, you can either drag it and put it into the board like so, or if there's multiple ideas that you want to drop, you can just click on all of them and then add all of them to the board at once.
It's going to be in a folder like this that you can expand and now it's automatically in a group. This is also a really good feature to use. If you want to study creators specifically how they're doing their voiceovers, how they're doing their carousels and identify the patterns.
Another reason why the vault is really handy is let's say you have a content idea that is more talking head style. You can drag it into your board, connect it to your chat and ask something like, please transcribe this video. Just by doing this alone can really help you figure out how you might want to structure your video or use it as inspiration.
Again, the goal here is not to copy other creators, but instead to study what's working for them. Now that I'm up to date on most of my saved content ideas, whether it's in my notes app or within the poppy vault, the next step is for me to map out my content calendar within ClickUp. Now, at the time that I'm filming this video, we're at the tail end of October.
So I'm going to try to map out the rest of October and November using this new system that I've created. Now, because I am a little bit more visual, I've put a sticky note in front of my desk with my content pillars within ClickUp. I'm just going to map things out one pillar at a time.
So let's do that together.
All right. So this is what my ClickUp looks like. And as you can see, having the content pillars helps a lot to speed things up when you're content planning, because at this point it's just adding content to the buckets, but I took it a step further and I actually added a single bar for each week so that each week would have a theme.
And this is what we learned from studying Grace Beverly's content and what she does so well, which is creating a central theme or story where all the individual posts kind of relate to. So for example, with this week, my theme is overwhelm. And I also know that that's same week over on this YouTube, I'm planning on releasing a video about time management.
And so I'm going to kick off the week with my founder diary series, where I'm probably going to talk about how overwhelmed I feel with all the things that I'm juggling. Then the next day is a routine video. And I already have a video plans where I'm showing the steps of how I rebranded and reset my Mac book so that I could feel inspired again, even though I feel so overwhelmed with all the work that I have to do.
Then on Thursday, I have two posts coming out since I did miss my Monday post. So everything is kind of like shuffled back a bit, but one of them is a creator tip post, which is a carousel. post sharing all the things that I do to make my life easier as a creator with ADHD.
This is also going to have a direct call to action linking to my YouTube video about time management. Next, I also have a Yap video where I'm probably going to be making a super Boba. Then on Friday, I have my regular high rock series.
And as I'm creating the voiceover, because I know the theme that week is about, I am probably going to talk about how I feel overwhelmed that I'm eight weeks out and I still haven't hit my pace goal yet and how worried I feel. Then on Saturday, I have my more fun entertainment posts. And then on Sunday, I'm going to do a more value -based post.
That's a carousel sharing the things that I learned this past week that helped me feel grounded, despite feeling so overwhelmed and busy. And so as you can see, each of these posts do stand alone, but they tell a greater story about overwhelm, whether it's my own experience with overwhelm or some tangible tips or motivation on how to work through overwhelm.
And so as we look through the rest of the month into November, you'll see that I followed a very similar structure where each week has a central theme. I have a YouTube video that links to that theme. And then all of my posts underneath kind of address that theme in one way or the other.
Now, obviously this is just a plan and plans don't always execute. the way that you think it will. So make sure you follow me over on Instagram to see this plan come to life.
Now, what I want to do with you guys next is actually scripting our first video using the Poppy system that we created. And so let me share my screen and script our first video together. So right now I've got my poppy board.
I have my chat box. So I'm going to connect my scripting resources. I'm going to connect my Vanessa Lau brand and content strategy, and also my weekly format group as well, because what we're going to do right now is script my founder diaries video, which I'm actually going to be posting tomorrow.
Once all these relevant resources are in, I'm just going to zoom into my chat. I do like using the voice to text feature. So I can just click on this record button and then share what's on my mind.
So the strategy that I'm going to take with this is I'm just going to yap. I'm going to yap about my week. I'm going to yap about the things that I'm struggling with.
I'm going to yap about basically what I want my founder diaries to talk about. But what I'm hoping for is because I built this poppy system, that it's going to clean up my words and format it in a way that's a little bit more optimized. So let's do this together in real time.
Okay. So I want to script a 90 second video for my founder diaries series.
But yeah, let me know what the main lesson is for that. Thanks. okay so that was a huge huge word vomit but you can see that poppy captured everything that i said and now it's coming up with the theme hook ideas things that i requested so let's see what it came up with now already i can see that it's picked up a few themes of what i yapped about and it's recommending what the strongest theme is it's also following the scripting pattern i also love that it's given me some hook options okay so i just spent some time to actually read the script thoughtfully so let me just quickly show you what the script says.
I wanted to build a fuller life after burnout, but this week it started being too full. Now I'm not a huge fan of the hook. I feel like it could be stronger and I'm not a huge fan of all the different hook options.
I kind of want something that's a little bit more drastic and not so fluffy. And so I'm definitely going to work on that. But the things that I did like about the script is it kept my overall brand voice and basically all the elements that I yapped about.
So for example, right here is saying how, because I've burnt out in the past, I'm trying to prove to people that this time around I can do it all. I can live a balanced life.
I can work out. I can make content. I can show up for people.
I can have a relationship with God. But in the end, these are all things that I'm still sucking at because I'm trying to do it all. And that's the big learning lesson that I'm feeling in this story.
And it's exactly the feeling that I want to convey in this voiceover. And so now using this as a base, I'm going to give some feedback and then I'm probably going to re -script the voiceover based on what I I think it should be and then work back and forth with Poppy until I'm happy with the final script.
So give me a moment. Let's do this together.
I kind of want something a little bit more drastic. And then, you know, I was saying this week, I realized I take on more than I actually carry. I feel like it kind of gives it away too soon.
I want to build up the story a little bit about how I even got on this hamster wheel in the first place. I will say that my favorite thing about this script is the truth of I've burned out before because I only focused on business and I collected my health and I collected my friends. And this time around, I do not want to be like that.
And so what I'm trying to do now is keep my friends, keep my health, keep God, keep all these things, but in the end, I'm actually ending up in the same situation. And so I think my lesson in this is there's going to be seasons. So when I collect this information, it's easier for me to either decide if I should keep it or if it's something I need to let go.
So I want to give you more behind the scenes of how I came up with my script. And by the way, this exact script that I ended up coming up with got way more engagement using the system that I built on Poppy versus when I just raw dogged it myself right here. And later in the video, I'm going to show you the final result, but essentially I was yapping to Poppy with my feedback.
I wasn't a fan of the hook. It gave me a revised script, but I felt like something was missing where it was almost too perfect. And so what I did is I actually pasted one of Millie's videos, which is very different from the style of video that I'm making, but I really enjoyed her storytelling.
So I'm going to play part of the video for you.
My head's falling out.
It's pretty hot. And I just think it was so authentic how she was sharing the very detailed moments of her burnout. And so I attached this video and I said, I attached the video of Millie Goldsmith.
It has a similar vibe of what I'm looking for. And it basically analyzed her video of why the storytelling is strong. It's because she's sharing her physical reality.
She admits that she didn't realize how bad her burnout had gotten. She's doing all these things to support her future self, but then she stopped supporting her present self. And so with that information and using my own story, it was revised to share a very similar detail.
And so obviously we ended up doing a lot of back and forth. I wasn't happy with the length, so we changed that. And you can see that it's like a long conversation.
You still have to work and you still have to brainstorm. Now, just as an interruption, future Vanessa here is I realized the reason why I was kind of unhappy with the script at some point was because I was using an AI model that's not really built for scripting. And so in the future, if you do decide to script your videos, I recommend that you either use Poppy's recommended scripting model, which is more built for writing.
Now, if you ever get confused on what type of model to use, you can always click on what model should I use? And there's going to be an AI model guide for you, which explains to you what AI model is best for what type of work you're doing. For example, Claude Sonnet is great for ideation and scripting.
What's also great is it'll also tell you how much credits it will take up so that you can manage your budget if you need. But anyways, back to the video. But what ended up happening is I ended up voice noting the exact script the way that I would say it.
We cleaned it up. And this is basically the script I ended up with. So now I'm going to play the final video so you can see the results.
I'm burnt out and I hate admitting that. My eczema is flaring up. I'm getting irritated faster.
And it's embarrassing to share because I've been here before. The first time I burnt out, I poured everything into business and neglected everything else. So this time I tried to build a life where work wasn't the only thing that mattered.
But somehow I still end up with the same burnout. and it makes me wonder if I've even learned anything. But I think what I'm realizing is that burnout can still happen even when your priorities are good.
Because I can't lie, my life is truly amazing right now. This past week, I flew to Toronto for one day to learn from other e -com founders with Leon. Training for High Rocks every week has made me feel so close to my friends.
I found community within my church and I've closed a number of exciting brand partnerships. So it's not to say I'm saying yes to things that I don't care about. I'm saying yes because I care about all of it.
But caring about something doesn't... automatically mean I have capacity for it and that's the part I haven't learned yet. So this week I had to confront it.
I dropped out of a few brand deals I knew were stretching me thin. I un -RSVP'd from some birthdays which I feel really bad about and I had to have honest conversations about what I can actually give right now because I can't keep saying yes and then resenting the things that I say yes to. So I guess this is day one of being honest about what I can actually carry and I think that's the best that I can do right now.
Taking it one project at a time, removing things when I can. and just reminding myself to breathe now i hope by showing you guys my inspiration and what the final result ended up being like shows you that you're not copying other people you are learning from them using something like poppy and because of that you end up getting better at storytelling you end up getting better at articulating your vision and so it's just really exciting to have tools like this and regardless of how much or how little you guys use ai i really hope that in this video you've taken a few good nuggets to implement into your content strategy.
Now, if you do want to learn my process on how I edited this video, make sure you like this video and subscribe to my channel because in my next video, I'm going to show you how I create an automated editing system using Claude and Descript. And if that's something you want to learn too, then again, like this video and subscribe to my channel as always guys, I appreciate you.
And I will see you in this video next.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
It opens on a confession: a few weeks ago she lost brand deals because nobody could tell who her account was for. What follows is the full rebuild, start to finish, ending with a real script written live on the system it produces.
Named ideas worth stealing.
02:00concept
The 12-post feed audit
Cover your bio, look only at your last 12 feed posts, and ask whether a stranger would know who you are and whether that picture matches what you actually want.
Steal forauditing any personal brand or product account before a repositioning
03:20list
Three content goals
- Attract product customers with top-of-funnel content
- Attract the right brand partners
- Attract creators who can become affiliates or UGC partners
Every pillar and format has to serve the reasons you create content over the next 12 months.
Steal forsetting goals before choosing topics
14:00model
Content pillar overlap
- What you like talking about
- What the avatar needs
- What your goals require
- Broad enough for endless ideas
- Formats are not pillars
Compare the topics you enjoy against what the avatar wants, group the overlap into 3-4 broad pillars, each with a purpose, share of posts and sample titles.
Steal forchoosing pillars for any personal brand
21:10list
Five creator lessons
- Central theme organized by time (Grace Beverley)
- Talk over unrelated B-roll (Elise)
- Repeatable formats (Michelle)
- Document in the moment (Millie Goldsmith)
- Series with goal and deadline (Julia Montgomery)
- Consistent visual identity
Study creators you are drawn to, name the pattern behind why, and adapt it to your own story rather than copying.
Steal forbuilding an inspiration file that produces usable rules
34:50list
Weekly format plan
- Mon: Founder Diaries
- Tue: Routine
- Wed: Yap while making the product
- Thu: Creator tips
- Fri: Training series
- Sat: Fun or trend
- Sun: Carousel roundup
One fixed format per day, each traced back to a creator lesson, with guidelines and a 50-idea bank for exhausted days.
Steal forany creator who stalls on blank-page ideation
44:00model
Founder Diaries script formula
- What happened this week
- Why it hit me
- What it made me realize
- What I'm trying now
Derived from a real founder moment, an emotional contradiction, a life-and-business pattern, a small reframe, and an unresolved ending.
Steal forpersonal story voiceovers and diary-style series
50:00concept
Weekly theme anchoring
Give each calendar week one theme (for example, overwhelm), open it with a story vlog, and have every other post that week address the same theme from a different angle.
Steal forturning stand-alone posts into a weekly narrative
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
59:50next-video
“If you do want to learn my process on how I edited this video, make sure you like this video and subscribe to my channel because in my next video, I'm going to show you how I create an automated editing system using Claude and Descript.”
Teases a concrete next episode tied to the same workflow; the sponsor offer ($1 seven-day trial plus a free template) was placed earlier at the end of the board tour.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
Visual structure at a glance.
